Too Many Shots
by MBP
Summary: A series of vignettes beginning the day Johnny and Dally died and continuing through their funerals.


Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders and unfortunately never will.

Too Many Shots...

_Darry_

They run. They're moving as fast as they can, but even as Darry looks around at the others - at Pony, really, to make sure he's still able to keep up - he wonders why he feels like this is futile. Dally called - he called all by himself. That must mean he wants help. But Darry knows he's trying to convince himself of this. He knows, somehow, that help might not have been what Dally had in mind. Because he knows what Dally doesn't want anyone to realize and what the others are still too stubborn to admit - that he's beyond help now. That the instant they lost Johnny was the instant they lost Dally, too.

But they continue to run, gasping for air, and all too soon, they see Dally come into view, and they hear the sirens, and they see the lights, and then - then Darry's heart sinks right into his shoes because he knows why Dally called. Because Dally is reaching into his pocket, and he's pulling out what is most definitely not a wallet or a set of keys, and the cops know this. They pull their own guns, and then Darry knows why Dally called. He wanted witnesses. He wanted to feel like he mattered for once. And as angry as Darry is for what Dally is doing to all of them - he doesn't want to look around at the others - he _doesn't_ - he knows that it worked. He can hear them even if he isn't looking at them. He clenches his fists and shuts his eyes tightly, but he hears the unaccustomed hoarse sob as Steve tries to grasp what's just happened. He hears Soda trying to calm him down even as his own voice shakes. He doesn't hear Two Bit, but he knows that's because Two Bit is at a loss for words for once in his life. And he doesn't hear Pony...

xxx

_Two Bit_

Two Bit does find his voice. He has no choice. He is sitting on the ground, staring towards... well, no. That can't be Dally. It can't be because Dally wouldn't be lying in a pool of blood under a streetlight, lying there so still...

But part of him knows it is. And that part of him suddenly means that he has to close his eyes and pretend that they aren't damp for the first time in he doesn't know how many years. He is sitting there, trying to breathe evenly, trying to pretend he doesn't have any reason to calm down, when he suddenly hears a noise that is unlike the others he's been trying to drown out. And when he does look up, he sees Pony swaying on his feet, and he suddenly knows that it has nothing to do with what he's seeing but everything to do with the fact that he, Two Bit, should have said something to Darry. It has everything to do with the fact that Pony should not have been fighting, that Darry should've known about the splitting headache his baby brother had been trying to hide, that if anything happens to Pony - and the blood drains from Two Bit's face when he realizes that this is, in fact, a dangerous possibility all of a sudden - that it will all be Two Bit's fault.

So he finds his voice in time for the others to also see what's happening - that Pony is toppling to the ground...

xxx

_Soda _

Soda turns when he hears Two Bit's cry, but it's not because he expects to see anything worse than what keeps replaying behind his closed lids. He'd closed his eyes when he'd grabbed onto Steve, partly to keep himself from seeing anymore cops or lights or death or blood, but mostly because he knew that if he took one look at Steve - if there was a chance he would actually _see _the tears in _Steve's _eyes - well, then he knew he wouldn't be able to hold it together. And he needed to be able to hold it together. Steve needed him to be able to hold it together.

So they were sitting there. Soda had his arms around Steve, and Steve had buried his face in Soda's shoulder. Steve's own shoulders were jerking with silent sobs, and Soda had been holding on tightly, trying to detach himself from what had just happened... from what was happening. If he just closed his eyes... and his ears...

But there were some things that were impossible to drown out, and the sound of panic in _Two Bit's _voice was one of them. Two Bit didn't panic. Ever. Even when Pony and Johnny had disappeared, even when Dally had called to say he needed their help.. Two Bit just kept his head down and kept going. But now...

Soda looks to where Two Bit is sitting, and he sees the last thing he could have imagined, the last thing he could have handled. He sees his little brother crumpling to the ground.

xxx

_Steve _

Steve feels it the moment Soda's arms stiffen around him. He's hiding his face in his best friend's shoulder, knowing he can't control this anymore but knowing that the last thing he will ever allow is the cops to see this and know he's just about lost it, when he hears Two Bit's voice as if from a distance, and he senses that Soda's numbness is leaving him at last.

And Steve knows that Soda had been numb. Because there is no other explanation for why he can no longer hold it together, and Soda can. Soda is the one who would normally be falling be apart right now - if anything could be called _normal_ right now - but _he's_ the one who had felt the tears welling up and hadn't been able to stop himself from letting that one sob escape. That one sob that told anyone who was listening that if Dally had a breaking point, well, then, no one should be surprised to learn that Steve had one, too.

But everyone knows that Soda's breaking point is a lot lower than Steve's so when _Soda_ catches _him_, when _Soda_ wraps his arms tightly around _him_ and lets _him_ hide in his shoulder, even Steve is surprised... but he doesn't question it. He needs this more than he needs anything else right now since everything else he would ask for is impossible. They can't turn back time, and they can't make those bullets go back into those guns, and they can't bring Johnny or Dallas back... and he can't think about this anymore because it's not making anything better. It's just making him shake harder, and it's making poor Soda hold on even more tightly. Until they hear Two Bit, and that's when Soda stiffens, and that's when his arms leave Steve alone, and that's when Steve realizes that things can get worse and that Soda's about to break.


End file.
